This invention relates to a coin separation device and to a method for operating a coin separation device.
Such coin separation device comprises a conveying device for conveying coins from an inlet container in a conveying direction along a conveying line and a checking device arranged on the conveying line for recognizing a coin which is conveyed along the conveying line.
In a coin separation device of this kind, which is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,552 B2, there is provided a conveying device in the form of a two-strand conveyor belt which forms a conveying line along which coins are conveyed from an inlet container in an upward direction (against an action of gravity). Carriers are arranged on the conveyor belt, which take up coins from the inlet container and convey the same along the conveying line. Distributed along the conveying line different devices are provided, which are meant to ensure that only one single coin is conveyed on each carrier. In dependence on a recognition, the coins are conveyed into a coin collection device, wherein objects not recognized as coins are sorted out and returned to a user.
Such coin separation devices serve for separating coins from other objects. Downstream of a coin separation device a sorting device can be provided, which sorts coins separated by the coin separation device and passes the coins in sorted form into a collection container.
The separation device known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,552 B2 operates according to the so-called “vertical separation principle”. In the vertical separation principle, coins are conveyed out of an inlet container, moved along a conveying line in an upward direction and supplied to a coin collection device in dependence on a coin recognition. Such coin separation devices generally are insensitive to foreign objects and can have a high recognition accuracy. By a suitable design of the conveying line only coins are to be transported along the conveying line as far as possible, while other objects remain in the inlet container. In dependence on a recognition, recognized coins then are conveyed down from the conveying line into a coin collection device for the further processing of the coins. In the coin separation device known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,552 B2 an electromagnetic ejector for example is provided for conveying a recognized coin from the conveying line into a coin collection device.